


Song of Halloween

by Kalira



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Nightmare Before Christmas Fusion, Cuddling & Snuggling, Halloween, Hatake Sakumo/Orochimaru (background), KakaYama Week 2020, M/M, Orochimaru is Kakashi's Mama, Serpent Orochimaru, Tenzou is a Hanging Tree, Wolf Hatake Kakashi, Wolf Hatake Sakumo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:20:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24082720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalira/pseuds/Kalira
Summary: Kakashi never lets Tenzou miss a Halloween Night, nor laze away the day after alone.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Yamato | Tenzou
Comments: 12
Kudos: 63
Collections: Kalira's KakaYama Week Stories (2020)





	Song of Halloween

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [KakaYama Week](https://kakayamaweek2020.tumblr.com/post/190752626837/we-are-happy-to-announce-kakayama-week-2020-the), Day 4: Halloween AU
> 
> I had some trouble with this prompt, but settled on a Nightmare Before Christmas fusion as being a good interpretation of it, hopefully.

_“Tenzou! Tenzou!”  
_  
Tenzou stirred slowly, sap creaking and thick in his veins. Kakashi barked again, all but bouncing on his paws as Tenzou peered down at him, branches stretching lazily. He was . . . not very dignified for a _wolf_ , Tenzou thought fondly, though _this_ was also not his usual mien.

 _“Tenzou!”_ Kakashi barked, and Tenzou shuddered all the way up to the driest leaves of his crown as Kakashi’s paws braced against his trunk.

 _“I see you.”_ Tenzou groaned and rustled again. _“What is it?”_

Kakashi grinned, plumed tail wagging. _“Tenzou, come on, it’s **Halloween**!”_

Tenzou startled, but- He could hear the songs beginning, now, far off. _Ohh. . ._

 _“You’re going to miss it. . .”_ Kakashi all but sang, teasing, looping around Tenzou’s trunk and rubbing against him companionably.

 _“I hear it, I hear it.”_ Tenzou hauled his roots up, slow and fierce, and Kakashi gave a call that rose into a howl that shivered through Tenzou, eerie and powerful. His eyes glowed in the gloom, and Tenzou shook himself, beginning to move, the hanging nooses among his branches swaying.

Kakashi leapt ahead but did not outpace Tenzou, though he easily could have, only circled back around him, powerful voice lent to the song of Halloween night rising.

Tenzou had never missed a Halloween, and he wouldn’t start now . . . but there were a few years when he might have, if it weren’t for Kakashi. Tenzou moved after his wolf with fondness, feeling the rush and power of Halloween night as they moved closer to the origin of the song - towards town itself, where _everyone_ was converging now.

Tenzou preferred to live his life in the peace beyond the graveyards, mostly alone, which meant he was far on the outskirts of Halloween Town, though yet apart as well from the forest of normal trees. Kakashi came for him every year, and had since he was a sapling and Kakashi a floppy-eared cub who never strayed far from the moon-bright bulk of one or both of his parents - his father’s wild fur, thick and crackling with lightning, his mother’s gleaming scales, shining with bright slashes of colour that warned of his venom, both all but glowing when under the light of the moon.

Kakashi leapt a low stone wall as Tenzou stumped carefully around through the narrow gap in it, and there indeed found Kakashi’s parents nearby. Tenzou grinned and bowed his crown to them as Orochimaru looked their way, and his eerie eyes blinked before he smiled back.

Sakumo was singing, his strong voice carrying a good part of the music they shared, wailing and enough to shiver the blood in one’s veins - or so Tenzou had been told, by those who had both blood and veins. Kakashi leapt up, bouncing from a stump to a wagon to a broken remnant of wall, and took a place just beside Tenzou, high up. Then he tipped his muzzle back and began to sing as well, his voice mingling with his father’s and electrifying the air.

Tenzou raised his own voice, spreading out his branches and swaying with the rhythm that carried them all on this night, every year. The Pumpkin King made his appearance with a dramatic flare of fire, his voice rising above all the others. The magic of Halloween surged and Tenzou felt his branches stretching further before he had even thought of moving.

The fire went out and Jack leapt to the rim of the fountain in the square, twirling. He made a full circuit on his own, then extended a hand and pulled Sally up beside him as the banshees grew louder. Tenzou bent his boughs low, then up again as the music grew sharper, leading them all through a dance.

Heavy coils slid over his roots, and Tenzou twisted as Orochimaru looped around him, pulling his tail out of the path of the vampires’ hearse as it rolled by. Sakumo bounded up, bouncing off the rocks where Kakashi stood and onto the nearest roof, even higher. He tipped his muzzle up to the jack-o-lantern moon and howled, and Kakashi raised his own voice in answer. The werewolves, their voices not quite so strong as Kakashi and Sakumo’s own, joined in after, and the music binding them all surged.

The song and the parade and the dancing and spooking lasted with games all through the long Halloween Night, until the jack-o-lantern moon finally faded from the sky, sinking out of sight beyond the dead and sleeping forest.

The denizens of Halloween Town cheered and cried to see it fade, coming together in the unified feeling once more. They began bidding one another slow, reluctant farewells, and Tenzou began his slow trek back to his favourite hill.

His place there awaited him, and Tenzou shivered, rustling his branches, and burrowed his roots back down deep, humming with contentment and the remnants of the high energy of Halloween Night. He settled in to sleep, the sun overhead warming his sap and baking his branches comfortably despite the chill wind.

A soft sound, and then the sensation of padding paws across the exposed parts of his roots, and Tenzou smiled. He lowered a few branches, and then Kakashi’s paws were up among them as he straightened once more, rustling and rearranging himself.

Kakashi crooned, paws careful as he slid over Tenzou’s bark, finding his way to the centre almost at the peak of his trunk. Tenzou made a little more room for him, and he curled up, almost wrapping himself around Tenzou’s trunk, nestling in cosily.

Now Tenzou could rest, he thought, content. _“Good rest.”_ he wished Kakashi, and he crooned again.

 _“Good night and good day.”_ Kakashi returned, nudging up against Tenzou’s bark and raising his muzzle, nosing the nearest branch.

Tenzou could hear the strains of others calling from the village, _only three hundred and sixty five days until next Halloween!_ and _you were even more dreadful than ever before!_ and _how can you even wait for next year?_

Tenzou smiled, settling down to sleep. He loved Halloween - all of them did, no one in Halloween Town possessed a heart - or whatever they might hold in place of one - that did not _thrill_ to the song of Halloween and the energy of the night and all that they did. . .

But Tenzou was more than happy for the long quiet between as well, for the days spent with Kakashi napping in his branches and the night songs that were not shared but _only_ his wolf’s eerie voice, and so many moments between.


End file.
